What to eat for your Pre-Workout Meal
You want to have carbohydrates in your system before you begin a weight training session. If you’re low on carbs, you won’t have the energy or power for an effective workout. Your body may even tap into the muscle cells as a means of locating more energy to complete the workout.
What you eat right before your workout depends on what time of the day you’re training. If you’re working out first thing in the morning, get up early enough to eat a small meal before beginning your workout. You definitely don’t want to weight train on an empty stomach. I recommend a normal breakfast of egg whites and oatmeal for your first meal of the day if you train in the morning. If you don’t want to eat a full meal, you can substitute a whey protein drink for the egg whites, but you still need the oatmeal.
The egg whites or protein shake will provide your muscles with the quickly digested amino acids they need after your nightly fast. Those sources of protein will be absorbed into your muscles fast, so you’ll have those valuable amino acids ready for your heavy workout. You also need carbohydrates for fuel during your workout. You don’t want to eat a simple sugar (like orange juice) because that raises your blood sugar very high and then drops it lower than normal, causing an energy crash. A complex carbohydrate will give you sustained energy for a longer period of time. That’s what you need for your workout..
Oatmeal is a great pre-workout choice because one cup provides 54 grams of complex carbs and plenty of fiber. That means it will be digested slowly and won’t cause a big fluctuation in your blood sugar. You’ll have the energy you need for a heavy, hard, workout. If you workout later in the day, you should eat at least one to two meals during the day that contain complex carbohydrates. They’ll be stored in your muscle cells as glycogen, which will provide energy when you begin training.I train in the late morning, so I have time to eat a full breakfast before I workout. I try to eat breakfast about 90 minutes before I train so the protein and carbohydrates I eat have time to digest.
About 30 minutes before I begin training, I have a small pre-workout drink, usually one scoop of whey protein with one serving of best creatine. Because I eat the oatmeal for breakfast, I don’t need to eat complex carbs right before my workout. What you eat immediately before the workout is less important than what you eat during the day. Don’t eat junk during the day and then expect a magical pre-workout meal to provide you with the carbs and amino acids you need for a great workout. Eat high quality food throughout the day so you’re feeding your muscles the nutrients they need for an awesome workout.
I’ve also been experimenting with sipping a workout drink during my workout. I used to drink only water when I was training, but now I have a drink that contains amino acids and a nitric oxide precursor. I put one scoop of Optimum Nutrition’s Vassive EA8 and one scoop of Vassive NO into my shaker and sip it between sets. The Vassive EA8 contains all the essential amino acids I need to feed the muscles and prevent the body from stealing protein from the muscles during a workout. The vassive NO is a nitric oxide product that helps me get a great pump during my training. Of course, after my workout is finished, I always have a protein shake consisting of 35 grams of whey protein along with another 70 grams of carbohydrates.